This is another poem being added to the Recovery Poem section of the GUGOGS website.
Mother Teresa’s “Do It Anyway” poem encourages perseverance and kindness, urging individuals to continue doing good regardless of the potential negative reactions or outcomes. It emphasizes the importance of fulfilling one’s values and actions with resilience and faith, even when faced with criticism or rejection.
To me, this poem captures what Step 12 means to ‘practice these principles in all our affairs’. To find our fulfillment not in the outcomes or ends but in the means or principles we use that reflect our values and ground us with integrity.
There is great synergy between the direction we set in our Step 3 decision and a fidelity to the inputs of relying on a God of our understanding to help us practice these spiritual principles and values. My little plans of ‘playing God’ with my expectations and demands to manufacture external outcomes are often what separate me from this freedom of reliance on Him.
This poem also suggests the conflict that exists between the ‘way of the world’ and the ‘way of the spirit’ … perhaps the inesacapable reality of the spiritual battle expressed in the Beatitude “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Bruce M.
Do It Anyway
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never. between you and them anyway.
*This poem was found written on the wall in Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta